THE MEN'S SLALOM turned out to be a tough one. Just like in the ladies’ competition, many of the athletes didn't make it across the finish line and, when the first run was over, 45 of 129 had made it to the second run.
Timon Haugan, yesterday’s silver medallist, had a good race and was in the lead after the first run, followed by teammate Björn Brudevoll. Albert Popov, Bulgaria, had the third fastest time in the first run. Among those who also made it across the line were Asa Miller, competing for the Philippines, and Alwyn Kanwar, India.
Many of the athletes who could have had a chance to compete for the medals skied out in the first run, including yesterday’s bronze medallist Victor Guillot, and Giant Slalom winner, Loïc Meillard, was disqualified after missing a gate.
"It was a very special first run. It was a very straight course, it wasn’t difficult but rather so easy it was hard. You gained so much speed so conditions that would have been easy to handle became difficult,” said Norwegian Björn Brudevoll.
The 45 who made it to the second run got to see the sun come out and some improved conditions. For Adrian Pertl, Austria, second runner up in the first run, Björn Brudevoll and Simon Efimov, Russia, it was a particularly good final run.
Adrian Pertl had the sixth best time in the first run and was 0.88 behind leader Timon Haugan. In his second run he managed to push into the lead.
"The first run was okay, I wasn’t nervous before the second run and I think that was good for me,” said Pertl.
The biggest threats to Pertl’s lead were Björn Brudevoll and Timon Haugan, but in the end Pertl was 0.16 faster than Björnevoll.
"It was a nice thing, winning a gold medal in the championships here,” said Pertl.
Unfortunately for Haugan he skied out just before the final third of the course. For Björnevoll, this was his first race in the Juniors.
"That certainly put some pressure on me. The goal was to win today so it was a bit annoying to miss that by 16-hundredths, but second place is still great, especially since I struggled a bit in the second run,” said Björnevoll.
Simon Efimov was in fifth place after the first run and had a solid second run. He finished third, taking a bronze medal for Russia, 0.62 behind.
None of the British athletes made it to the finish with Charlie Raposo and Laurie Taylor coming out in the second run with Billy Major and Robert Poth failing to make the finish in the first run.
Full results are available at www.are2017.com.